The City of Santa Cruz Cares About Net Neutrality

Now that so much of the world runs on the internet, we need to make sure the rules are working for everyone.

When companies are as big, powerful, and well-funded as the cable and phone corporations, it’s hard to refuse them anything.

But there’s good news: as the federal government succumbs to lobbying pressure, some cities are standing up and saying “no.”

Santa Cruz can be one of those cities.

If local governments can’t overrule federal regulations, we can at least make sure that our public dollars don’t support the loss of an open internet. Cities like Santa Cruz, under the leadership of Mayor David Terrazas, are leaning towards a meaningful commitment to only do business with ISPs who are net neutral. (More about the pledge here.) Mayor Terrazas has signed the pledge (yay!).

The Santa Cruz City Council today approved a declaration supporting Net Neutrality in general terms. We hope the Council will take the next step and codify the pledge signed by our mayor.

We hope that other entities will take the pledge, too. When you pay for internet service, you should be the one who decides what you can watch, listen to, or read. Information services are not a good place to put a highest-bidder or corporate-crony filter. All ISPs are currently net neutral, since the change has not yet been implemented. Let’s give all ISPs a reason to stay that way.